Of all “first world” nations, ours struggles with some of the highest rates of crime, unhappiness, isolation, and polarization. Lack of public gathering places reinforces our perceived separation.

The City Repair Project fosters thriving, inclusive and sustainable communities through the creative reclamation of public space. We accomplish this by facilitating the emergence of place, the process through which physical locations or “spaces” become imbued with meaning. Even a dreary, underutilized space can be a container for connection.

Combining the energy of tea and functional art creates the possibility for us to transcend. Since 1995, City Repair has combined these time-tested tools of placemaking and tea to create a fleet of mobile tea-houses including the T-Bike, T-Whale, T-Pony, the T-Palace and the T-Horse. This spring, we are launching a new addition, the T-Crab! This bike version will better demonstrate environmental sustainability than our previous truck-based models.

The T-Crab is a crab-shaped, Japanese-inspired tea bike-cart being designed and built by Adrian Haley from Crows Foot Creatives. T-Crab metamorphosizes into a whimsical awning and meeting space. Herein, gatherers are drawn to free home-crafted teas like bees to nectar. It opens its arms to contain gatherings for celebration, mutual support, and community organizing thereby creating cultural mixing zones in public meeting deserts.

As a pedal-powered electric assist vehicle, it has the ability to squeeze into underutilized spaces that the T-Horse was too truck-like to participate in. Where do you think T-Crab’s agility can be best used to activate unusual spaces and collaborations?